Giving Back: The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

BJT readers—who represent one of the highest-net-worth magazine audiences anywhere—clearly have the means to contribute to a better world. To help you do that, we’re spotlighting one deserving organization per issue. All of them have received a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator, which evaluates philanthropic institutions based on their finances, accountability, and transparency.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research is working to find a cure for Parkinson’s by funding aggressive “high-risk, high-reward” research. Actor Michael J. Fox, who was diagnosed with the disease in 1991 at age 30, went public with the news in 1998 and launched the foundation two years later. Since then, it has funded more than $450 million worth of research aimed at developing improved therapies for those with the disease, including treatments that might slow, stop, or reverse its progression. The foundation’s website, which provides extensive resources for people with Parkinson’s, states that the charity is “obsessed with efficiency” and is 100 percent focused on one urgent goal: “accelerating breakthroughs patients can feel in their everyday lives.”